The Masquerade
by MadamaVolpe
Summary: Reaver was not always the deviant, the libertine, the hedonist that everyone perceives him to be. Once he had a past, a love, a family.


_Author Note: Alright, here we go. About a year ago I started roleplaying on Facebook as a certain deviant we all know and love. Born from that one character, my friends and I moulded a backstory for Reaver, and now the Kalledendrias family is so big that other refer to it as 'Fable Albion' and 'Kallendrias Albion'._

_But I digress. Please enjoy this little story of how Reaver Kallendrias came to be. _

_Disclaimer: Anything you recognise isn't mine. _

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><p>The man known as Reaver was not always the man known as Reaver. Once upon a time he had been a young man, fresh-faced and charming. He had been quite an arrogant child, vain, constantly fussing over his pearly-white skin and silky dark hair. He lived a luxurious life, his mother being Empress of Solidiya before she'd renounced her title to marry a farmer, Reaver's father. He lived not as Reaver but as Samuel, with his mother, father and twin siblings. This is how the young man named Samuel Southworth became Reaver Kallendrias, the greatest deviant whom ever lived.<p>

***  
>A young man opened his eyes. Golden sunlight poured onto his face and he yawned, rolling over on his side. He'd had a late night, staying up with the girl he wished to marry, Leilene. He didn't regret it, not by a long shot, but he certainly wanted to stay in bed a little longer. Eyes closed, he thought of Leilene. She was very beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman he'd known. Long waves of cherry-red hair and the biggest green eyes he'd ever seen. They'd grown up together and it was clear to everyone in Oakvale that they'd be married. Samuel wanted it, too. He was young and happy and so very in love.<p>

"Brother, are you really going to pretend you're asleep, like a child?"

Samuel rolled over and saw that his younger brother, Cadeance, was sat on his bed which was opposite. His waist-length blonde hair fell in gentle waves and shone, illuminated by the sun. Samuel had always been a tad jealous of Cadeance's beautiful blonde hair, a stark contrast to Samuel's jet-black locks. They both shared their mother's cornflower-blue eyes however, a blessing of which Samuel was proud.

"What gave me away, sweet brother?" Samuel questioned, wrenching himself begrudgingly into a technically upright position. Cadeance tossed his hair over one shoulder and stood up, padding over to where his fresh clothes were laid out. He began to dress.

"Your huge grin. Thinking of someone, were we?"

Samuel gave a carefree shrug and offered his brother a smile. Cadeance always had been able to read him. He was a strange one. Not vain like him, or brash like their sister, but quiet. He was the contemplative, softly-spoken one. Not that he was weak, oh no. He was a demon with a sword, as lethal as Samuel was with a pistol. Their sister preferred to use her magic, something she had picked up from their mother.

"Aren't I always?" Samuel rubbed at the back of his head, his fingers tangling in the bird's nest of his inky-black hair. "What are you doing up this early, anyway?"

Cadeance finished buttoning his blazer and threw open the curtains, making Samuel recoil with a hiss, shielding his eyes. The younger sibling smiled and adjusted his lapels.

"Mother asked if you, Antoinette and I would drop off some flowers at Madame Larelle's house."

Samuel leant his head back and gave a huge, dramatic sigh. He _hated _doing errands like he was a mere commoner. He had Kallendrias blood, for Avo's sake! Well. He was officially a Southworth, son of a farmer, but he certainly did have the blood of an Empress running through his veins. He had his mother's black hair, even, whilst his brother and sister both had their father's blonde hair.

"Oh, you _must_ be joking," Samuel said with a slight whine to his voice.

Cadeance shook his head almost wearily. He should've known the news would spark this reaction. Samuel was forever looking down on others, thinking himself superior, all because their Mother was an ex-Empress. Cadeance was much more humble, less quick to judge others, always ready to give others the benefit of the doubt. In fact, if you asked him Cadeance would be quite happy to give you the shirt off his back. He got a little taunted for it by Samuel, but he did it all the same.

"Must I?" Cadeance asked rhetorically with a raise of the eyebrow. He was getting a tad irritated by his brother. He loved him dearly, of that there was no doubt, but his ever-present god-complex drove him insane. Samuel liked to boast too and boast he did, often and lots. Their father, Xavier, disapproved when he did this and was constantly scolding him. Sometimes Cadeance thought Samuel despised their father because whenever he would look away; Samuel would give him the filthiest look that he could dredge up.

"Look, I simply cannot understand why _we_, Kallendrias children, should run _errands_," Samuel spat the word, lips curling as if it was a curse.  
>Cadeance blew upwards agitatedly. He had to force himself to be calm but…oh, by Avo, he so wanted to punch him, right in his pretty, smug face. He busied himself with polished his claymore. Distraction was what he needed. It was the key to staying calm. When he couldn't distract himself, Cadeance would do things like twisting his ring around his fingers. Anything that lessened the desire to violently wipe that grin from his brother's face.<p>

"Samuel, we're not Kallendrias children."

"Yes we are! Our mother is Kalina Kallendrias, is she not?" Samuel shot from his bed, fingers curling around Cadeance's lapels, bringing him closer. Cadeance calmly looked into his older brother's eyes, the exact shade of his own. He covered Samuel's hands with his and forced him gently away.

"What is our last name, Samuel?"  
>Samuel turned his head, the way he did when he knew he was in an argument that he couldn't win. He played with the strings of his bloomers, the ones he wore to bed. They were all diversion tactics, things to make Cadeance forget that his brother was wrong. Cadeance didn't forget.<p>

"Alright, alright. You've made your point," Samuel snapped, his voice laced with venom.

"I'm just saying, brother, that perhaps we have royal blood…but really, we're farm folk. Just like everyone else in Oakvale. We farm strawberries. You know all this,"  
>Cadeance explained gently. He reached out and patted his brother sympathetically on the shoulder before he shrugged it away.<p>

"Don't touch me. I'm getting dressed now."

Cadeance rolled his eyes. Here would come the infamous Samuel sulk. When Samuel sulked, he did it remarkably. Devoted entirely to sulking. Once, when Leilene had shouted at him for tripping Cadeance up, Samuel had sulked for a week. Solidly. Refused to eat, refused to go out, just stayed in his bedroom with the curtains drawn shut. He was a drama queen. He didn't like the spotlight being on anybody else, even on people's birthdays. In fact, Cadeance remembered for his and Antoinette's tenth birthday, Samuel went out and slaughtered a wolf to bring back for dinner. Samuel _knew_ the twins didn't like wolf meat. He just did it to be spiteful, and whilst they were eating he shot Cadeance a dark grin.

A knock at the door plucked Cadeance from his reverie and dumped him back in the present. The door opened slightly and Cadeance flushed painfully red when he saw it was Maybelle, their maid.

"May I enter, my lord?" She asked softly, eyes demurely downcast.  
>Cadeance flicked his eyes towards his brother who was tying his rather flamboyant ascot. Samuel nodded without looking up, knowing his brother would be watching. Cadeance nodded and the girl came in. Her arms were laden with fresh clothes which she placed on the end of their beds.<p>

"You look very good today, my lord Cadeance, if I may be so bold to say so," Maybelle said softly as she clasped her hands behind her back.  
>Cadeance did his best to think of cool things to stop the warm flush that was spreading across his cheeks. He cleared his throat awkwardly and saw Samuel roll his eyes behind her.<p>

"You may say so. And thank you. You look lovely, too," Cadeance said all in one breath.

Avo, he was bad with women. He could hardly talk to Leilene, either, and only could when he remembered that she would one day be his sister-in-law. Antoinette and his mother were the only women he could talk to with ease and confidence. Samuel was forever teasing him about it. _Samuel_ was a charmer. _Samuel_ could enrapture any person he wanted. _Samuel_ had every girl in Oakvale thinking he was wonderful. Well. Before he fell in love with Leilene, of course.

"Yes, yes. Everyone's pretty and we're all going to dance in the sunshine and make love to rainbows," Samuel cut in with a sniff. He was an impatient young man, always tapped his foot and huffed when something didn't go as fast as he wanted to. A brat, if you will. Yes…Samuel was very bratty.

"Ah! Samuel, don't say such things!" Cadeance hissed as his cheeks turned dark red.

Maybelle pretended not to notice, for his sake. She kept her eyes low as she'd always been taught. Samuel always saw someone giving him eye contact as a challenge. In that manner, he was like a wolf.

"Are you two arguing again?" Antoinette, the youngest Southworth, said as she strode into the room.

Cadeance couldn't help but smile. His sister was very beautiful, a female version of him, and always commanded attention as soon as she stepped into a room. Perhaps formidable was a good word to describe her. To describe every one of the Southworth children, actually. They were all attractive, and all dangerous with weapons.

"Oh, you know how it is, Toni. Samuel being an ass," Cadeance chuckled, ignoring the indignant snort that came from his brother.  
>Antoinette gave the two a knowing grin, giving Maybelle a note which she folded up before leaving. Cadeance moved to give his sister a kiss on the forehead and Antoinette smiled.<p>

"Yes, yes. Dear Sam is an ass, and you do so like to wind him up, Cade," she said with a grin. Cadeance made a face of mock-horror and clasped a hand to his heart.

"_Me_? Winding up my dear brother? _Impossible_!"

Samuel grunted in response as he brushed his shoulder-length black hair, which he preferred to wear in a ponytail. Antoinette went to her older brother and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Samuel raised an eyebrow and patted her. Cadeance smiled. They may have had arguments, they may have acted like they hated each other…but when it came down to it, the Southworth children would always be there for one another. They were sworn to protect the others, bound by blood. Nothing could break them.

"Come on then," Antoinette said cheerfully. "Let's go run this errand."  
>Samuel groaned.<p>

"You just wait, Sam. One day when you're old and grey you'll miss us, and wish you did more while you could," Cadeance told his brother with a playful prod. Samuel slapped his hand away, though he smiled.

"That's preposterous!" He paused with a grin. "I will never be old."  
>The twins rolled their eyes.<p>

"Not even you can defy death, silly," Antoinette chuckled. Samuel shrugged.

"We'll see." 

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><p><em>I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It focuses heavily on Cade, I know, but I simply adore that character and he gives the best view on ReaverSamuel. Also, if you want to have a look, I still have my Reaver account, under the name 'Reaver Perverto Kallendrias'._

_If this is a story of what happened **before** he became Reaver, then perhaps I'll write up a story of what happened **after** he became Reaver. Let me warn you, he has **many** children. :3_

_Stay tuned, and please review! _


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